What did they say? Respondent identity, question framing and the measurement of employment

Abraham, Rosa and Anjum, Nishat and Lahoti, Rahul and Swaminathan, Hema (2026) What did they say? Respondent identity, question framing and the measurement of employment. The World Bank Economic Review. ISSN 0258-6770

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Abstract

Using data from a primary survey conducted in rural India, this paper examines how two key survey design features—respondent identity and question framing—affect employment estimates. First, it estimates the causal impact of (a) replacing a single weekly employment question with a set of detailed activity-specific questions, and (b) changing the reference period from a week to individual days. The detailed module yields significantly higher estimates of women’s employment with no corresponding effect for men. Second, using spousal respondent pairs, the paper finds that proxy-reports by men significantly underestimate women’s employment while men's employment estimates do not differ between self- and proxy- reports. Within different types of employment however there are significant deviations for both genders. Intra-household analysis suggests misreporting is driven by asymmetric information and gender norms. Overall, the findings underscore the importance of self-reporting and detailed questions for accurately measuring employment with implications for improving survey design in resource-constrained contexts.

Item Type:	Article
Authors:	Abraham, Rosa and Anjum, Nishat and Lahoti, Rahul and Swaminathan, Hema
Document Language:	Language English
Subjects:	Social sciences > Economics > Labor economics > Labor force and market Social sciences > Public administration > General considerations of public administration > Public administration of general forms of assistance > Census and surveys
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > School of Arts and Sciences
Full Text Status:	None
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/7830
Publisher URL:	https://doi.org/10.1093/wber%2Flhag001

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